Pat Robertson, a famed Evangelical preacher had an embolic stroke yesterday and they got him quickly to a hospital and he is doing well.

Robertson has AF and had an ablation when he was 79 he is now in upper80s.



Pat Robertson

Celebrities with Atrial Fibrillation

Pat Robertson - Celebrities with Atrial Fibrillation


Evangelical Christian broadcaster, and founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Pat Robertson, 79, is recovering well after a 10 hour surgical procedure to treat atrial fibrillation. During the procedure, at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital in North Carolina, Robertson underwent a procedure called catheter radiofrequency ablation as well as undergoing the removal of an abnormally enlarged Left Atrial Appendage.

Liz

If Robertsons left Atrial Appendage was removed then he would have to been on a blood thinner, still got a stroke.

L

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Elizabeth
If Robertsons left Atrial Appendage was removed then he would have to been on a blood thinner, still got a stroke.
L

No, he wouldn't necessarily have been on an anticoagulant if he'd had his LAA removed. It's quite the opposite. Once your LAA is removed (or closed by a device) your risk of stroke from the atria drops by over 90%, so people are often able to stop anticoagulants after the procedure and they often do.

Strokes can come from sources other than clots in the heart so we have no way of knowing why he had a stroke. Could just as easily have been a ruptured arterial plaque rather than a clot from the heart.

From what little I can gather from the press, he was given a "clot busting" drug (tPA) that appeared to stop his stroke in progress. tPA is really just a very powerful anticoagulant.